Woodside Park produced a timely feature winner when Sydney visitor Not A Pretender won the $250,000 Inglis Premier at Caulfield on Saturday.
Not A Pretender (2g Royal Academy – Mimes by Desert King) led from the outset and bolted in by four lengths despite drifting out in the straight. “She had a bit on them,” winning jockey Dan Nikolic said. “She did all the work and has a future.”
Patinack Farm owner Nathan Tinkler bought the Premier winner for $65,000 out of the Woodside Park consignment at the 2009 Inglis Melbourne Premier yearling sale. Woodside has another 13 yearlings catalogued for this year’s Oaklands Junction sale starting on Monday, March 1.
Not A Pretender started favourite at Caulfield after two promising runs at Randwick. She is by evergreen sire Royal Academy who is 23 and now permanently based at Coolmore Stud’s Hunter Valley base.
The Inglis Premier winner is a three-quarter sister to Chuckle (Danehill), a Listed winner of the Dark Jewel Classic at Scone. Second-dam Clowning (Rory’s Jester) is a three-quarter-sister to the dam of 2009 G1 Blue Diamond winner Reward For Effort.
Woodside Park’s draft for the 2010 Melbourne Premier includes four first-crop yearlings by resident sire Econsul. He is a son of Champion NZ sire Pins and was a Group 1 winner of the 2004 Caulfield Guineas.
“The feedback has all been positive from the pre-sale inspections,” Woodside studmaster Dean Harvey said. “The Econsul filly from Saliah is a half-sister to the Group 1 sprinter Bank Robber. She has plenty of presence and lots of leg underneath her. She’s athletic and looks a lot like her father.”
Harvey is also preparing yearlings by Rock Of Gibraltar (4), Fastnet Rock, More Than Ready, Encosta De Lago, Beautiful Crown and Choisir for the Melbourne Premier.
Woodside Park was well pleased with the two Fastnet Rock colts it sold at the Gold Coast Magic Millions in January. Together, they realised $250,000 and both will be trained by Peter Moody.
Woodside also sold a Fastnet Rock colt for $180,000 to Gai Waterhouse at the Perth Magic Millions earlier this month. He will syndicated by Denise Martin.
Its Fastnet Rock at the Melbourne Premier is a big, strong filly from Grand Lodge mare Bee And Bee (Lot 8). She is a half-sister to Lindsay Park filly Rockabee Miss (Fastnet Rock) who overcame difficulties to win on debut at Morphettville in November.
Former Toll Holdings chairman Peter Rowsthorn developed Woodside Park into a state-of-the-art stud which is located on 130 hectares at Tylden in central Victoria. He also owns Wadham Park which serves as the horse-racing arm of the business at Nagambie.
Wadham Park claimed its biggest success to date when La Rocket won the G2 St. George Stakes at Caulfield on February 20. The Rock Of Gibraltar gelding will now be aimed for the G1 Australian Cup at Flemington on March 6.
La Rocket has been a flag-bearer for Wadham Park and he earned black-type for the first time when a dominant winner of the Listed Spring Classic at Seymour in November. He returned for a first-up placing behind Black Caviar and Here De Angels in the G1 Australian Stakes at Moonee Valley prior to his on-pace victory in the St George Stakes.
“This horse has ever put in a bad run,” Wadham Park trainer Dale Sutton said at Caulfield. “He just gets up near the speed and tries really hard.”
The St. George Stakes victory took Wadham Park’s tally to 33 winners this season and the majority have come in the last three months.
Sutton is confident the winning run will continue despite the imminent sale of Wadham Park’s rearing and pre-training property at Nagambie. “The proceeds of the sale will be redirected into Wadham Park’s other facilities,” Sutton said. “We will be looking to consolidate back to our two properties at Tylden.”
The Nagambie property was previously known as Newlands Thoroughbreds and borders Darley’s Northwood Park and Swettenham Stud. The sale comes in the wake of Queensland Racing’s decision not to go ahead with its planned acquisition of Rowsthorn’s Wadham Park property in the Gold Coast hinterland.